Shoe sole



April 2, 1947- J. M. BIEREfi 2,419,337

saoa SOLE Filed Ray 18, 1945 I8 esssues Pea-$5025 l9 h Efl'r'xlva Patented Apr. 22, 1947 SHOE SOLE John M.

Bierer, Waban,

Mass, assignor to Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Company, Cambridge, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application May 18, 1945, Serial N0. 594,382

This invention consists in an improved shoe sole in which the insignia of the manufacturer or other commercial ornamental design may be permanently incorporated, securely protected, and clearly displayed throughout the life of the shoe carrying the sole. The invention includes within its scope a novel process of producing in strip form the sole material.

It is the general practice of many manufacturers to apply a trade mark to the shank of the outsole by printing or stamping with a hot die and, while such a mark is satisfactorily displayed in new shoes, it is rapidly obliterated in wear by repeated wetting of the sole and by contact or sending against irregularities under foot.

In my prior application Serial No. 525,029 is disclosed a process which consists in assembling a multiplicity of thin plastic resinous plies, subjecting them to heat and pressure and then cooling while still under pressure, thus bonding the plies into a single thick integral strip. In this manner, it is practical to prepare outsole ,material 3 to 8 irons in thickness and having all the characteristic flexibility, resistance to plies for the body of the sole material and a transparent or translucent ply as the outer or surface portion of the strip.

I have discovered that desirable results from the standpoint of the shoemaking industry may be accomplished by applying the desired insignia either to the inner surface of the outer transparent ply or to the underlying surface of the body of the strip by printing, stamping or appliquing. When the plies are then permanently bonded together, the insignia is exposed to view through the transparent ply and is securely and completely protected thereby so that both the color of the insignia. and its sharp outline is indefinitely preserved. When thus incorporated intothe shank portion of a shoe, the insignia remains conspicuously displayed throughout the entire life of the shoe.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and 3 Claims. (Cl. 36-40) 2 of the sole with the transparent ply as partially split from its body portion and Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the process making the insole material in strip form.

In Figs. 1 and 2, the outsole Ill of a man's welt shoe is shown as attached by stitching H to the bottom of a shoe having an upper l2 and a heel H3. The insignia H, which in this case may be represented conventionally by the initials B W H, appears in the sale in the arched portion of the shank, and this in ordinary wear is out of contact with the ground. As shown in Fig. 2, the insignia is printed upon the face of an underlying portion of the body of a sole and is sealed beneath a transparent ply IS.

The structure of the sole will be best under= stood from the diagrammatic view of Fig. 3 suggesting the manner in which the strip material is fabricated. Reslnous plastic material such as Vinylite is usually produced commercially in sheets about .060 inch' in thickness. As already stated, plies of this thickness may be assembled and bonded into an integral strip of the requisite thickness for outsoles by subjecting them to proper conditions of heating, cooling, and pressure. For example, three thin plies- Ili, l6 and ll of resinous material, such as Vinylite, may be passed first through a zone It of pressure and heating and then immediately through a zone IQ of pressure and cooling and will emerge from this treatment as a single thick integral strip. As herein shown the ply I5 is substantially transparent while the plies i6 and I! are opaque. It will be understood that any desired number of plies may be bonded together, depending on the thickness desired in the outsole material.

In carrying out my invention, the insignia l-t is stamped upon the upper face of the ply I8 as a repeated pattern and this is progressively sealed into the body of the strip beneath the transparent ply ill by the ensuing steps of the bonding process.

In Fig. 3, the three plies i5, i6, and i? are represented as being assembled upon a steel pressure band 2| supported by a series of closely arranged rolls 20. The cooperating pressure members are not shown but may be supplied by heated cylinders of large diameter or by any other members capable of supplying and presentin slowly moving heated and cooled surfaces.

The apparatus has been herein suggested only conventionally but my prior U. S. Letters Patents No. 2,033,271 and No. 2,179,443 disclose in more mechanical detail machinery suitable for making plastic resinous sheet material of the type herein described.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described in detail an illustrative embodimentthereof together with the best process now known to me for producing the sole material, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In a shoe, a sole having a body of tough flexible resinous material with an arched shank portion, the body of the sole including in its structure a base ply having insignia displayed thereon, and a transparent overlying ply integrally bonded thereto, protecting and preserving the said insignia while exposing it to view in the shank portion of the sole.

2. In a shoe, a sole having a body of laminated plastic vinyl resin with an arched shank portion, the body oi. the sole including in its structure an inner base ply and an outer transparent ply integrally bonded together, insignia carried -by one of said plies and enclosed between both of said plies, the said transparent ply protecting and preserving the said insignia while exposing it to view in the shank portion or the sole.

4 3. In a shoe, a sole having a body of laminated tough, flexible, resinous material with an arched shank portion, the body oi! the sole including in its structure a thick inner portion comprising a multiplicity of opaque plies bonded together and a single thin outer transparent ply bonded permanently to the opaque plies and forming therewith an integral homogeneous sole, and insignia carried by one of said plies and enclosed within and visible through said transparent ply.

JOHN M. BIERER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the 

